date

5 June 1805 Evidence Ch. False
5 June 1805

Evidence

Ch. False Ends. Judge

' 3. Corruption. Cause

Moreover in the infancy of government, an example of the disease /no such disease nor any thing like it/ having occurred, it was altogether impossible for human workmen to pursue it. In the days of Brutus and [...?], or [...?] [...?], or Alfred or William the Conqueror what prophet could have disclosed to himself any such labyrinth as that of Roman, or French or English procedure? Bribery, the corruption of rude ages, he might have seen in plenty, which way soever he cast his eyes: corruption, this crept[?] /covered/ up, as an abcess, with the complicated system of inverted[?] organisation that was the fruit of it, was a disease altogether undiscoverable by any other light than that of experience.

Intelligence therefore, no less than power, intelligence and therefore even inclination[?] was wanting, necessarily wanting, to the production of the only effectual remedy.

Increase like the smallpox was thus intended upon mankind, generation after generation smarting under it, before the remedy of fixed salaries, like vaccination, could be called in, to [...?] the [...?], and effect a cure. But should a cure ever be effected, what a prodigious mass of peccant matter to be discharged!
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    Description: 8 June 1805

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    Thus it was, that, from so simple a cause as this unfortunate connection, thus it was that in the most important of all lines of service the matter of reward became, became and to the whole amount of it, the matter, the wages of corruption, conferring on /making in the bosom of/ the Judge an interest acting in complete opposition to his duty, in complete opposition to the ends of justice. Thus it is that whatever little intelligence and ingenuity was in those rude times to be found in that commanding station, was directed to that disasterous species of manufacture, making business: to the giving to the system of procedure that sort of form and texture which should render it as productive as possible in the character of a fund of fees. (a)

    In our days, the hands of Judges are tied, the eyes o their constitutional superiors, the eyes of an enlightened and jealous public are fixed continually upon them, and Judges like men of other ranks, and especially in high places, trained by education know fear in their bosoms a breath /the preponderance of a bubble/ of reputation - over a mass of opulence. In those early /rude/ days, and throughout the course of ages during which under the influence of the corruptive format[?] /harm of corruption/, the system of procedure was developing itself and repining into the present state of rottenness, the Judge was fastened[?] by no rules, was subject to no inspection: no constitutional superior, or none but what was either in a state of complicity with him or in a state of sleep, the people imminently /universally[?]/ blind and stupid, rapacity in the judicial as in every other station of the judge in every other, raiding too much and wearing[?] none. Stalking forth without a mask. Stalking forth and devouring its prey - without a mark.
  • Title: [5 June 1805 Evidence Introd]
    Description: 5 June 1805

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    In such a state of things /confusion of interests/, what a demand created for vice in various forms and colours, in high places! [for fraud], for dissimulation, for simulating for interest for hypocrisy, for mendacity, for fraud! What industry employed in imparting /borrowing/ /imparting/ the arts of the theatre into the machinery of justice! What eagerness to do as much as possible in appearance, as little as possible in effect: to lament over the disease, while the cause of it was protected, cherished, and inflamed! On every occasion of [...?] /favorable occasion, in/ what indignation against chicane, what sympathy for the vexed[?] and pillaged /afflicted/ suitor, what zeal for substantial justice!

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  • Title: [Evidence 2 June 1805 Introd]
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    . Profit channels

    5. The emolument received by a subordinate officer on account of the Judge may be received either openly in his name, or in the name of some other person or persons acting as his trustee or trustees: number two has on these occasions the advantage in some respects of number one.

    In case of this kind, should the legality or propriety /respectableness/ in other respects become matter of doubt /apprehension/ he has a choice to make. Receiving the emolument in his own name attracts attention, but puts a good face on the matter, by proclaiming innocence receiving it by trustees eludes attention, but should attention unhappily stray that way, betrays consciousness of guilt.

    AS the receipt of the corruptive profit may be masked so may the act of patronage: on the hand through which the money finds its way into the pocket of the Judge may be concealed /covered up/ /secured from observation/, so may the lips by which that hand is nominated. The nomination to the office is performed - not by the Judge, but by somebody else! - The recommendation of the person to be nominated is whispered by the Judge to that somebody else.

    The thicker the darkness in which the channels are enveloped through which the matter of corruption flows, the more baleful the corruption on his accounts: men are less upon their guard against its influence, /and it being the more difficult to discover/ and the cause of the disease and convince the public of its existence in that character the disease itself is the more difficult to cure.

    Crimes the eternal enemies to the peace of society that are continually waging war with human happiness, call into action all the noxious energies of the human mind. Some employ violence other have recourse to strategies they assume an endless variety of appearances and every where are provided with secret information. If they have been attacked without having been subdued, if this revolt perpetually exists, it must be attributed almost exclusively to the simplification of this branch of legislation and of the means that have hitherto been employed. It is perfectly [...?] that the intelligence act + prudence that is employed in the commission of crimes is infinitely greater than that employed in their prevention.

    To ascertain where a penal Code is severe observe whether it punishes with severity the most common class of offences - viz. offences against property. In all countries an excess of severity has been prevalent in this respect, because punishments being ill-chosen and badly applied - what has been wanting in respect of justness has been attempted to be compensated for by severity. Prudence dictates the [...?] as little punishment as possible for offences against property yet there may be the greater quantity in [...?] and capable of being applied to offence against the person. l The first are susceptible of compensation the last admitt not of compensation of the same description. The mischief of offences against property may be reduced to an almost imperceptible quantity by means of Insurance offices, which all the gold of Po... could not restore to life a man of [...?] murdered, nor clam the alarm excited by offences. The question however here is not where a penal code is more or less severe: this would be regarding the subject in an incorrect point of view. The true consideration is whether the severity prescribed the code is necessary or not.